Sadly, my transmission saga continues. My rebuilt transmission from MOFOCO was slowly leaking oil from the main shaft. I had took it out…and tried to see if there were any problems. A few months ago before vacation I made sure the pilot bearing was in the right spot (or where I thought was the right spot), and put it back together. It still leaked oil, but I just continued to drive it. Right before my last trip it started slipping — this was no surprise, as I knew the clutch pad would eventually get some oil on it.

So, back out it came. Here’s a video of it:

I don’t know what is wrong. The transmission itself runs smooth and has no other problems. I’m asking for help on the DIY EV forums and the samba.com.

So, I figured I’d try the old transmission again. I installed it (takes a day to do the swap), and it makes a horrible noise:

It didn’t make this bad a noise when I took it out. But, after I took it out I did mess with it by taking one of the sides off and replacing the main shaft seal. So, I can’t drive it like this to see if it would also leak oil. I also asked on the samba about this different problem (no responses yet).

So…I’m stuck. I don’t know what to do. A cool EV I really enjoy driving and two non working transmissions.

I could buy *another* transmission, but I don’t want to waste $800-$1200 on another one. Especially if that isn’t the real problem! I’d rather rebuild one of these to get one good one working. 

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